A Ruined Season

Sophie Greenwood went to London to have her season hoping to find a husband. If only they had told her that her father had lost all his money, but gossip spreads quickly around London and already everyone knew Baron Canmore's scandal. Now two years later, will Sophie ruin another season? No one seems to want to make staying scandal-free an easy task. Almost everywhere she turns someone is trying to make her the laughing stock. Fleeing London once more seems to be her only option. What hope is there for a life of her own?

Ashe Gardner, Earl of Graemoor surveyed the oak paneled ballroom as all of the young women paraded in their best. The girls had all been presented at Court a few days before, which meant the season could truly get under way. That meant Ashe’s grandmother could get to work getting him married. That meant he could get to work thwarting her every attempt. It’s not that he abhorred the idea in itself, just the choices that his grandmother pushed in his direction. Most of his dances for the night were already filled with the names of all the young ladies she had pointed out to him as the best prospects. For a dance, they were fine enough, forever after, he would go mad. His wife had died a year after they were wed and ever since mourning was satisfied, his grandmother had pushed matches on him. She didn’t seem to care that he had no trouble finding a woman, but they weren’t wives. They were not the same thing.

So now, he was stuck with seventeen- and eighteen-year-old girls who only wanted to get a titled husband. Keeping the ancestral estate running kept him busy enough, not to mention all the parties that he threw to keep his grandmother entertained since she rarely left the house anymore.
Then he spied a true diamond of the first water. Dark ash blond hair, slate blue eyes completed the best countenance he’d seen in a good long while. Ethereal pale skin, a long neck setting off an almost regal bearing, tall, statuesque the best word. Perhaps there was a reason to endure the season. Ashe hardly noticed a person take up position next to him.
“You’ve got your eye on someone, I know that look.”
Ashe finally pulled his eyes away. “Who is that, Darnley?”
“Bit more specific?”
Ashe looked over at the vision. Didn’t he see her? “There.” Ashe pointed unobtrusively. “The blond one. The only one worth looking at.”
“Ahhh, haven’t you heard? That’s Miss Sophie Greenwood. Her father is Lord Canmore, impoverished as they come, in only the last few days. Her mother’s tried to marry her off to half the country before it was found out that her twenty thousand pounds was gone in some business misadventure. I received a visit myself before coming to town. Maybe if she had a title she would be redeemable, but without a farthing...”
“Pity.” Ashe muttered turning away.